


Fish Out of Water

by Grotesgi



Series: After No Disaster Can Touch Us Anymore [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Planet, Aquariums, Captive Mers, Free Mers, Gen, Humans, Merformers, Ocean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grotesgi/pseuds/Grotesgi
Summary: The twins were born in the wild, but unfortunate events saw them out of the ocean before their first year is through.
Relationships: Sideswipe & Sunstreaker
Series: After No Disaster Can Touch Us Anymore [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824688
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Fish Out of Water

“Carrier, what’s that?”

The great big _something_ blocked out the sunlight filtering through the waves. And there was noise, coming from above the surface—strange sound patterns that didn’t remind Sideswipe of anything he’d ever heard before. Even birds didn’t make noises like that, as far as he knew.

“That’s a boat,” their carrier said, swimming up to them. “It’s a human construct.”

Sunstreaker frowned, and Sideswipe followed suit after a beat. A boat? They’d heard of those before, but seeing one for themselves was something else. “It’s above the water?” Sideswipe asked. Sunstreaker tilted his head thoughtfully at the alien thing.

Sideswipe followed suit, after a beat.

“Yes,” their carrier confirmed, staring at the thing with them. “Humans use them to float. They don’t swim very well.”

“You’ve seen humans before?” Sunstreaker spoke up. They shared a surprised glance between them, before both pairs of young eyes turned to their serene carrier.

“Yes,” she said again. “A few times.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“…I don’t think so.” There was a note of uncertainty in her voice that had Sideswipe frowning at her. She was frowning too, before the expression eased away into a smile when she looked back at him. “They’ve never acted hostile when I’ve seen them.”

Sideswipe considered this a moment, and from Sunstreaker’s expression he was doing the same. Some of the other members of their pod spoke very negatively of the humans, but none had ever talked about any concrete bad experiences.

And their carrier knew so much of things.

He wasn’t sure if he would’ve called the situation _safe_ , seeing her caution, but if it had been dangerous, they wouldn’t have even been here anymore. Carrier took good care of them.

As such, Sideswipe’s curiosity won over. “Can we go check it out?”

Sunstreaker shot him a sharp look, but he didn’t say anything as they waited for their carrier’s verdict. She’d gone back into frowning, glancing back at their retreating pod and clearly weighing their options. Sideswipe could almost guess what her arguments for both sides were. On one hand, there was always reason for caution, but on the other, ‘educational experiences were important’, as she always said.

Sideswipe waited anxiously for a response, resisting the urge to approach the “boat”. Sunstreaker kept looking at him like he was getting ready to stop him in case he did try to go.

But he didn’t, not before their carrier came to her decision and said, “I suppose we can.”

The red twin whooped and instantly sprinted towards the dark shape. It was moving gently in the small waves along the water’s surface, and as he got closer, the noise coming from above it got clearer too.

Definitely not birds. Although he could see birds too, circling above the boat, but their sounds were distinctly different from the ones coming from the boat. “Are those the humans?” he asked in wonder, slowing down enough to wait for Sunstreaker and their carrier. Their carrier was smiling, though there were clear tension lines on her face.

Sideswipe knew what that meant. ‘Be careful,’ even if she didn’t say it out loud. “Yes. They communicate like that with each other.”

He could feel his excitement only growing bigger in his chest. “Kind of like us!”

“Kind of like us, yeah,” said their carrier with a small laugh, bravely swimming up to the boat and laying one hand on its underside. Sideswipe’s eyes went wide before a splitting grin spread over his face and he rushed over to do the same.

It didn’t feel like rock or coral, or sand or skin, but it was solid under his hand. Sideswipe patted it a few times, and when Sunstreaker hesitated, grabbed his brother’s hand and laid it on the boat too. “Feel that! It’s… It’s… Very boat.”

Sunstreaker carefully smoothed his hand over its surface. “It’s kind of like an armored fish,” he said, and Sideswipe’s eyes lit up with agreement. That’s it, that was the closest comparison! Armored fish.

An upside down armored fish.

Dead armored fish. Those were upside down.

Their carrier laughed and was about to say something else when a narrow _something_ punched through the surface of the water and struck into the depths. Sideswipe froze and Sunstreaker did the same, but their carrier wasted no time taking action by shoving them towards the direction of their pod. “Go! Out of here, now!”

She didn’t need to tell them twice. When carrier signaled danger, you obeyed or you _died_ , and Sideswipe for one wanted to live to see another day. So he took the prompting right along with Sunstreaker, and they both dashed towards the distant shape of their pod, their carrier hot on their tails. The sounds from above water turned louder and more urgent, and only a few tail strokes later the sound of the water breaking sounded again-

Followed by a wounded wail.

“Carrier!” Sunstreaker’s cry had Sideswipe turning around to the sight of their carrier slowly sinking, a stick of some sort protruding from her chest. There was red in the water.

“Carrier!” Sideswipe parroted, changing course to swim back to her only to be intercepted by Sunstreaker. “No! She said we need to go!” his brother said urgently, trying to push him towards their pod.

Sideswipe fought back. “We can’t leave her!” he shouted, pushing free from Sunstreaker and racing back to their carrier, through the red tainting the water. The smell would attract other predators soon.

They had to get out of here.

“Carrier, come on, we gotta go!” Sideswipe cried, shaking her shoulder.

She didn’t respond.

“Sideswipe! It’s too late.” He could hear Sunstreaker’s voice breaking when he said that, before the felt his twin’s hand in his own. Sunstreaker began tugging on his arm, distressed clicks filling the water around them. “We need to go. Sideswipe, come _on_!”

The _boat_ suddenly roared to life, and Sideswipe glanced up from their carrier towards it. It was moving.

They needed to move too.

With a sob Sideswipe finally gave in and let Sunstreaker pull him along, the both of them swimming faster than they ever had in their life towards their pod. Its members had turned back around, alerted to something not being _right_ , but they were still so far away.

And the boat was gaining on them. 

“We’re not gonna make it!” Sideswipe gasped, glancing over his shoulder at the big, dark shape behind them. He didn’t know for sure what the humans wanted, but after seeing what they’d done to their carrier, _he had a pretty good idea._

“We have to,” Sunstreaker growled back, swimming even faster than Sideswipe thought he could. He fought to keep up, hanging onto Sunstreaker’s arm for dear life. 

But the boat was faster. It reached them, then it went _past_ them, and for a moment Sideswipe thought it wasn’t interested in them after all.

His hopes were shattered only seconds later when with a _bang_ something was shot from the boat. The water’s surface splashed when something broke through its tension and a web spread out around them like the cloud of a squid’s ink. He tried to dodge it, and so did Sunstreaker, but it surrounded them faster than they could get out of its way. Sideswipe wailed when it tangled his limbs, and next to him he could feel Sunstreaker try to wiggle his way past it, but the more they moved the harder it became to get away from it.

And then it began to tighten around them. Sideswipe gasped when his world was tilted upside down when something pulled one side of the netting. He was pressed against Sunstreaker and Sunstreaker was pressed against him when slowly but surely the pull on the net began to lift them towards the surface.

“What are they doing?!” Sideswipe cried, pushing with all his might to get in some direction that would get them _away_.

But nothing worked. It kept pressing and pulling and _lifting_ , and the sunlight from the surface kept getting closer.

Sunstreaker had no answers for him, only scared warbles that were so unlike his brother Sideswipe thought fright would make his heart hammer its way straight out of his chest.

They flailed to the last moment, but they made no progress towards freeing themselves before water slipped from their scales and the undiluted burn of the twin suns greeted them. Sideswipe squinted against the bright light blinding him, and by the time he managed to reorientate himself, it was no longer water beneath them.

He could feel Sunstreaker’s heartbeat against his tail when they were deceptively gently lowered onto the white deck of the boat. It was wet and sunwarmed when his skin first touched with it. Panic seized his throat and silenced him when the netting began to collapse and loosen around them, but he could hear Sunstreaker hissing and snapping behind him.

The humans, strange, four limbed creatures that balanced on two of their legs, weren’t deterred. When the net loosened and they could again move more freely, they descended. Hands all over him, pressing him down, and Sideswipe found his voice to cry for help in tune with Sunstreaker’s vocalizations of sheer anger and fear.

The ones there to hear, didn’t care. Their pod was beneath the waves, and they were above them, and the boat was still roaring and moving. Birds flew after it.

Sideswipe stared at the blue sky deliriously when four hands pressed his tail down, two his neck, and another two grabbed his arms and tied them behind his back with something soft that still wouldn’t budge when he tugged at them.

Sunstreaker wouldn’t quiet, but Sideswipe couldn’t see him. He gasped for water, but there was none to be found, and all he could do was pull the searing air into his lungs and hope it was enough.

It didn’t feel like enough.

And the suns were so hot. Carrier always warned them not to get out of water entirely during the day, because the suns were scorching and felt no mercy for their thin skins. 

Carrier was right, Sideswipe found out. He could feel his scales drying by the second and whined in discomfort, as if that was the biggest of his worries.

The humans made sounds all around them and gestured at them and at each other. Sideswipe didn’t understand it and didn’t particularly care either, at least not before one of them took a bucket and poured water over him. Based on Sunstreaker’s reluctant hiss of relief a moment later, they did the same to him.

It was a momentary comfort that the suns instantaneously began to undo, but the humans proceeded to repeat the motion every few minutes.

Minutes. The boat continued to roar and Sideswipe continued to tug on his bindings every few moments, to no avail, wiggling when he thought he could get away with it only for knees and hands to press more firmly on him to keep him in place and still.

Clouds were forming in the horizon and the suns were deep in their downward arc by the time something changed. The boat turned more quiet and the humans more active, and when he rolled his eyes he could just make out trees.

They were close to land, then. Very close to land.

If he’d calmed down any, that was all undone with that knowledge. Sunstreaker had quieted a while ago too, but now he could hear and feel his brother vibrate with deep growls.

Something was happening. Changing. He tugged at his arms again and flapped his tail, just once, but the humans’ reaction to that hadn’t changed. They pressed him down more firmly and said something to each other. Some of them left the boat only to come back moments later carrying… Something.

They spread it on the deck of the boat next to him, then _grabbed_ him and rolled him onto it. Sideswipe took a cue from Sunstreaker and hissed at the handling, snapping at hands too close to his mouth, but he missed when they moved their hand away at the last second.

He wished he could’ve tasted their _blood_.

They didn’t let him wiggle off the sheet they’d placed him on, and then they _lifted_ it, sandwiching him between the sides of the sling. Sideswipe froze at first before he began to flail with all of his might, but it was no use—he couldn’t get any purchase, and they merely carried him off the boat and onto the back of another human construct he had no name for. Sunstreaker joined him moments after, and Sideswipe… Mostly he felt too numb to care, but a part of them was so deeply relieved they were still together.

Even if they had no idea where they were being taken. “Are you okay?” Sideswipe whispered when the humans weren’t paying as much attention to him, turning to glance at his twin over his shoulder. He saw Sunstreaker staring back at him, eyes wide with stress.

Sideswipe suspected he looked the same. “Yeah,” Sunstreaker responded. “You?”

“Fine,” Sideswipe said, turning away before he bit his lip for the lie. He didn’t think Sunstreaker was that okay either.

But the humans hadn’t hurt them. Yet. It was really only a matter of time before they would, though, Sideswipe was sure of that.

They were left to wait with the occasional wash of water over them while the humans did whatever it was humans did. Sideswipe thought he was going to die from boredom before the construct they were laying on came to life like the boat had, and after it did he wished he _had_ died from boredom. Anxiety spiked up high again and he couldn’t help the distressed chitter that Sunstreaker responded to with a croon that didn’t sound anywhere near as reassuring as it was meant to. 

The thing they were on began to move. Sideswipe could feel it beneath him, and see it in the passing of the trees and other, human made structures.

Off to where, he still didn’t know.

They moved for too long with the suns quickly setting and the air cooling to degrees that didn’t threaten to dry him up within seconds. The humans continued to pour water over them at steady intervals, kindness that Sideswipe didn’t understand the purpose of. What did they care?

But obviously they cared in some way for them to keep doing it. They kept it up until it was mostly dark and they came to stop in front of a large, looming structure that Sideswipe could only stare at wide eyed. Its height competed with the trees around it, but nothing about it looked natural or like it fit in with the above water vegetation.

The humans began to bustle again, moving around here and there and doing this and that. Sideswipe could only watch and wait, a tense ball of nerves that had nowhere to go.

Then they came for him. Again they lifted the sling and him in it, carrying him from the strange vehicle that had transported them, and through wide doors into the structure. It was lit inside with light that looked nothing like sunlight and was placed in strange dots, like stars, but larger and far brighter.

Sideswipe had no words for any of it, but they carried him through the mazes that reminded him of underground cave systems until they came to a great, great opening.

He couldn’t see the sky, there was something blocking that from sight, but it was so, so far above them. It had more of the strange light sources, beaming down at him.

He was so focused on the strange grandeur of it that at first he didn’t notice they were lowering him. But then he could feel the ground beneath him again. They laid him on it, and for the first time in too long he could see _water_. Not just a little bucketful of it, but an actual _expanse_ of it.

Instantly he began to struggle, the urge and need to be submerged in that liquid of life overwhelming him. 

Again they pressed him down, though. Sideswipe screeched his offense and saw them wince, but they didn’t budge.

What they did do was cut his arms free, and as soon as they did, they released him.

For a heartbeat he couldn’t believe it and laid there, shocked and disbelieving.

Then he could see something yellow flash from the corner of his eye and turned just in time to watch them cut Sunstreaker free too.

They all backed away.

Sunstreaker stared back at him for a second before the both of them took their arms underneath themselves and raced each other to the water, diving beneath its surface to cheers from the humans behind them. 

Water _blissfully_ muffled those sounds and Sideswipe swam as fast as he could away from the noise, ready to get away from the humans and their strange vocalizations and unwanted touches. Relief pumped in his veins when he could just _swim_ again, and breathe like he was supposed to, and there was nothing restraining him or stopping him.

Freedom.

The heady feeling was only there to hit a wall, though. Literally, when Sideswipe swam straight into the obstacle that rose up ahead of him. He glanced up, but it continued above the water’s surface.

So he dove.

And it continued until it reached the bottom, without any hole or a passage through it.

So he turned left, and swam.

There was a wall there too.

His heart was beginning to race again, but Sideswipe turned left and continued swimming.

Until he came to a wall. “No no no no,” he chanted to himself when he turned left, again, and swam, again, and came to a wall, again. “No!” One last time he turned left, but in his heart he already knew the outcome.

He came to a wall. “NO!” In a last ditch effort, Sideswipe broke for the surface and against all reason stuck his head above water to have a look around. Everywhere he could see, walls. Ahead him, behind him, left of him, right of him.

Below him, above him.

There was no open air. No ocean.

He dove again, and driven by desperation, swam the outskirts of the container again.

Four corners.

Nothing but four corners. There was no way around it, through it, over it or under it.

Four corners and a floor deep below.

One last round and he came back to Sunstreaker who was staring at one of the walls with his arms crossed, a vacant expression on his face. “Sunny,” Sideswipe gasped. “There’s-”

“I know,” Sunstreaker interrupted him. “There’s no way out.”

He’d already known it, but hearing it out loud sealed it. With a whimper Sideswipe let himself sink all the way down, until he came to rest on the tiled floor and curled up against one of the four walls of the tank. Sunstreaker swam after him, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and pulling him against his side.

Sideswipe went willingly and returned the embrace, burying his head against his brother’s chest. “What are we going to do now?”

Sunstreaker didn’t answer for a too long moment, and when he did, Sideswipe almost wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want to hear that quiver in his voice ever again.

“I don’t know. Pits, _I don’t know_.”

  



End file.
